So they sail off in the Yacht and then what?
All that money he made - where did it go? He surely didn't pocket all of it?
They go to Macau, the dude is blind, what does he think he is gonna do... I don't think they planned ahead very much...
I would've accepted the offer from the Japanese Dude, or at least get him to help me find the chick instead of gunning it alone...
To understand the ending, you have to know a little bit about what happened in WWII. Sofia's family went to Hong Kong, which was owned by Great Britain at the time. Sofia and Jackson went to Macau, which was owned by Portugal. This was in 1937.
In 1941, the Japanese invaded Hong Kong when they went to war with Britain, and things got very ugly there. Sofia's relatives would have been in big trouble.
Portugal remained neutral in WWII, so Japan didn't invade Macau (they came to an understanding with the Portuguese government that allowed them to come and go, but they never formally occupied it). Thus, Sofia, Jackson, and Katya (and the Feinstein family) would have at least been safe from the war. They were pretty resourceful folks -- I think the implication is that they would have gotten by.
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War is ugly. People's color, cultural background, ethnicity become moot. No citizan is safe from soldiers too drunk or bored to want to have thier way with them and no soldier would be safe from those who would not be oppressed. Look at Iraq. No one is safe there, not even the Iraqi's. Its safe to assume that fear sent them running for their lives. Bombs have no prejeduce.
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I agree with what you say,I assume the Germans were too busy to round up German jews who lived in Asia.
I wonder if the members of the Russian family who went to Hong Kong would really get such a bad time,if they were treated as Russian nationals then Russia and Japan were not at war until the June/July 1945 and perhaps they would not have been badly treated since they were citizens of a neutral state.
Russia and Japan may not have been at war in 1937, but they were hardly allies – the Japanese had humiliated the Russians in a war in 1905, and bear in mind the emigres in Shanghai were all of the class that ran Russia at the time (of the Russo-Japanese War). Besides, the brutal conduct of the Japanese forces occupying Manchuria at the time the movie is set, would hardly have left Shanghai's expat community convinced that they wouldn't be targeted by the Japanese…
sharei agree with your point to a certain extent. though the japanese were more hesitant to strike out at the foreign nationalists, they did so at rare times. the foreign nationalists on the other hand always tried not to give them a reason to.
life is full of censorship.i can't spit in your eye. -katharine hepburn
The White Russians, as depicted in this movie, were the lowest of the low. They were in China illegally, because they had no papers. These people could look to no help from the Russian government, since the Russian government was now Communist, and the White Russians had supported the losing side in the Russian Civil War. They could get no help from the Chinese government, because they were there illegally. They were stateless people, refugees with no one to help them. Some Chinese took advantage of them, as did some of their fellow Europeans. The Japanese REALLY looked down upon them. They were the one group of white Europeans that the Japanese could use and abuse with very little repercussions. And the Japanese and Russians had a history of conflict, as stated by a previous poster. During the late 30's, the Russians and Japanese were very close to going to war, with several border skirmishes along the Russian-Manchurian border, including a limited invasion by the Japanese at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, in 1939.
shareSince Todd Jackson was an American I thought that the family would have been able to gain passage back to America. I am pleased by the movie's extremely unexpected happy ending.
shareyes, i assumed they went to america, since the man had connections and is no longer self destructive, AND knows the japanese mindset and war is coming, is now responsible for the welfare of two people, of course he is back in the states! he was just planning a layover. he has four years before pearl harbor. so he and his new family were probably comfortably in the states by then.
shareWhy are they called white Russians???
shareIn the Russian context, White connoted three designations: (i) political contra-distinction to the Reds, whose revolutionary Red Army supported the Bolsheviks and Communism; (ii) historical reference to absolute monarchy, specifically united Russia’s first Tsar, Ivan III (1462–1505), styled “Albus Rex” (“White King”); and (iii) sartorially, that some White Army soldiers wore the white uniforms of Imperial Russia.
from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Derekbd
War is ugly period.
My family and relatives are of Spanish heritage when Japan occupied the Philippines. They lived comfortably and over night their lives changed. First, the American occupation, yes Philippines was a colony/commonwealth of the United States until 1937. Then the Japanese came along. The female members of my family were covered from head to toe when they walk around fearing that the Japanese soldiers might rape them. Fortunately, no harm came to them but a lot of Filipinas became "comfort women" to these Japanese soldiers.
illegal? do you know at the time it was not required to have a paper to enter shanghai and generally all over china.there was no concept of illegal resident. shanghai was called adventurers paradise, among the world's top cities.that's why so many foreign people came and left.
as for the political status of russians, they first arrived in harbin which had great russian influence. when japanese came , they moved south to shanghai, and heavily relied on the french,you probably already know most jews later easily moved to hong kong and other countries.
one thing keep in mind, chinese chairman Chiang's son was married to a russian woman.. chiang was the most powerful chinese in the first half of 20th century.
as for the japanese, they could take advantage of anyone they wanted,including brits,think about singapore and even germans,heard about the so called japanese Schindler?lol.the whole WWII to japan is like riding a tiger,so better not dismount.I believe the action was not based on nationality(it's hard to distinguish it anyway,at the time europeans tended to hang out together) but based on individuals. however due to the chinese goverment's policy caused by their traitorous nature,colony complex,and by chiang's personal western bias....chinese citizens were treated apparently worst by japanese.,lead to the infamous nanking massacre
source: revisionist wikipedia..
you sound as if russians were afraid of japanese? in the 1939 battle who was the winner? why japan chose to go to war with brits and yanks in southeast asia not russia? although hitler ordered them to
as for 1905 war, it was on sea. russia's strength was army, not navy. actually if Chiang resisted, japan couldn't have occupied china! japan's army sucked big time. japan was not a strong nation pre WWII as it is now. don't get confused by its military victory in east..most japanese were living poor. all of their source were for war, yet they lost the war terribly and lost territory to russia..looking down? the brainwashed japanese seemed to look down on everyone, but that's just you know most stupid thing ever.
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